Using the ALMA radio telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO),a group of astronomers has detected sugar molecules in the gas surrounding a young star similar to the sun. This is the first time that sugar has been discovered in space around a star of these characteristics. The finding suggests that the basic pieces to build life are at the right time and place to be part of the planets in formation around the star.
Specifically, in the gas that surrounds IRAS 16293-2422 – 400 light years away – astronomers have identified glycoaldehyde molecules, “a very simple sugar, similar to the one we put in coffee,” according to co-author Jes Jørgensen of the work published by the magazine Astrophysical Journal Letters. This molecule “is one of the ingredients necessary for the formation of RNA, a genetic molecule necessary to build life,” he adds. And observations made with ALMA reveal that the sugar molecules are falling in the direction of one of the stars in the system.
Glycoaldehyde had been detected before in interstellar space, but it is the first time it has been located so close to a star similar to our Sun, at a distance comparable to that which separates Uranus from the center of the solar system. “One of the big unresolved questions is: how complex should these molecules become before joining a new planet? The answer could tell us something about how life would arise in other places than on Earth”, underlines Jørgensen, who is confident in which ALMA helps unravel the mystery.
